Giraffe review – sparkling one-woman show stands out from the crowd

Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghAn unlikely relationship blossoms in Abigail Weinstock’s compelling and touching solo drama It takes a brave writer/performer to make her character a sociopath. How to keep the audience on board with someone who is callous and indifferent? In Abigail Weinstock’s sparkling one-woman show, 30-year-old Eliana has been caught making clandestine recordings in her neighbour’s bedroom and cannot deny it. A court summons follows. Even then, her first thought is how to game the system. Her attempt to do so is what gives Giraffe its structure. Eliana has a fortnight until going in front of a judge who will determine whether her temporary restraining order should be made permanent. If she can drum up three letters of support in that time, she has an outside chance of avoiding homelessness (she lives too close to her victim to stay put). With no obvious advocates – her mother long dead, her stepmother intolerant and her father inscrutable – she needs extra resources of imagination to find backers. Sociopaths, of course, can be ruthless, so Eliana is prepared to bluff her way into a childminding job (reassuring the confused mother that she wishes no harm